Hong Kong Cinema
The third most active film industry in the world (behind India and the United States), Hong Kong cinema is per capita the most active in the world by far. Dependent on strong local support, it has always been heavily reliant on overseas markets as well – ethnic Chinese in Southeast Asia in particular but also the Chinatown markets in North America, Europe, and Australia. One problem that has plagued scholars and fans of Hong Kong cinema has been access to the cinematic past. Until recently there was no archive to store and screen old films. Lack of archives and a lack of a dedicated film organization specializing in archival screenings also meant that festival retrospectives were not possible. The lack of access to Hong Kong’s filmic past has been further complicated by the fact that most China scholars don’t know Cantonese, the main language of Hong Kong cinema.Through the tireless efforts of Yu Mo-wen, Law Kar, and Li Cheuk-to (festival programmers) the all-important Hong Kong International Film Festival (HKIFF) began in 1978. Because of this, Hong Kong’s past was introduced to its fans of the present, especially its retrospective screenings and catalogues. There is an “independent spirit,” that has animated several key moments in the history of Hong Kong screen culture. The first Hong Kong International Film Festival (HKIFF) in 1977 invigorated Hong Kong film culture by showcasing more challenging works, and by bringing world art cinema to the local community. As Hong Kong cinema entered the global arena, a newer “Second Wave” of filmmakers emerged. The Hong Kong New Wave Cinema of the late 1970s and 1980s as well as the so-called “Second Wave” of the 1990s provide perhaps the best known and most widely studied artistic turns in Hong Kong film culture. Similar to the French New Wave which emerged out of a culture of cinephiles associated with publications such as Cahiers du Cinema, Hong Kong’s New Wave was fueled by the energies of writers associated with publications such as Close Up Film Review and Film Biweekly. In the late ‘70s, the Hong Kong International Film Festival (HKIFF) started to show independent works from Hong Kong filmmakers. At that time, almost the only way to see non-commercial films other than at the (HKIFF) was at cine-clubs. Key filmmakers were eventually brought together as a result of “New Wave” critics, programmers, and scholars who benefited from access to new approaches to filmmaking they learned during their studies in Europe and North America. In his work on the Hong Kong New Wave, Law Kar highlights “...innovative techniques, urban sensibilities, interests in new visual styles, and more personal means of expression” as the key characteristics which set these films apart from the mainstream. Sources Fu, Poshek. The Cinema of Hong Kong: History, Arts, Identity. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge UP, 2000. Print. Pgs 4-5. Cheung, Esther M. K. Hong Kong Screenscapes from the New Wave to the Digital Frontier. Hong Kong: Hong Kong UP, 2011. Print. Pgs 4-5, 128, 214. Law, Kar, and Frank Bren. Xianggang Dian Ying Kua Wen Hua Guan = Hong Kong Cinema : A Cross-cultural View. Zeng Ding Ban, Di 1 Ban. ed. Beijing: Beijing Da Xue Chu Ban She, 2012. Print. Pgs 293-294.